Mar 15, 2013

After learning about protests surrounding the death of 16 year old Brooklyn teen, Kimani Gray, at the hands of law enforcement, I decided to read up on the situation as much as possible. My source of reference is of course the internet like it is for most people.

When you go to these different websites you can't help but to check out the 'Comment Section'. And let's just say the Comment Section as it relates to this story did not fail to disappoint. Of course because it was a black teen that was killed by the police the comments for the most part split across racial lines. White commenters like to bring up statistics about how all the gun related crimes happen in 'Black Neighborhoods'; whereas, Black commenters state how unfair Blacks have it when it comes to the treatment they receive from the cops specifically citing things such as New York's 'Stop and Frisk' policies.

But there was an interesting theme that seem to permeate most of the 'Comment Sections' that I came across on the 'Major News' sites. That theme dealt with why there never seemed to be any demonstrations or protests when a black person killed another black person, but when it was a police related killing or a white person killing a black person there appeared to be protests every where. Some even brought up the Trayvon Martin case as a point of reference. Nevermind, they never mentioned the fact that people were definitely upset by the senselesss death of Martin, but it was the lack of justice in the case that people were really upset about that led to all the protests and demonstrations.

But that brings me back to my Question of the Day. Is there a perception that Black Life only matters when it is taken at the hands of a White person or a Police Officer? Have we become so desensitive to Black-on-Black crime that we don't even flinch anymore when we hear about how over 300 kids were killed in Chicago in the span of one year?